Welcome! This blog is written by a Christian Environmentalist active in the church greening field in Australia. Follow Crown of Thorns to keep up to date on church greening news in Australia, learn more about what the Bible says on the environment through 'The Green Bible Challenge', pray about important issues, learn about the Five Leaf Eco-Awards and reflect on what it means to be a Christian Environmentalist in today's world.

Follow Jessica on Twitter @CrossAndLeaves or follow the Five Leaf Eco-Awards @fiveleafeco

Monday, November 2, 2009

Christian Living Series: Learning not to fear - the faith to stop the killing

I was re-watching the first Transformers movie the other day when something occured to me. It was the scene where Bumblebee sacrifices himself to save the two kids then the police all decend to 'neutralise' the threat. I couldn't help thinking that we always do that. We humans seem to be unable to live with anything we see as a threat. Throughout history we have wiped out, or hunted almost to extinction, many species that we have seen as either a threat to ourselves or our livelihood. Just look at the declines in wolves, tigers, bears and sharks. Even the Tasmanian Tiger(Thylacine) was wiped out because we thought it would eat our livestock. We have killed dingoes and crocodiles for the same reason. Even people who generally like animals often think it is ok to kill them if they have, or might, kill us. Look at the shouts from the media to kill the shark after every 'attack'. I applaud the poor victims and their families who sometimes have to remind us all that it is not the shark's fault, and we were in their habitat. As the science shows, it's not like sharks get a taste for human flesh, and they move on so fast I have to wonder if it is ever the same individual who is killed when we do hunt down the 'maneater'.

I wonder if maybe humans have been on the top of the food chain for so long that we don't know how to live with threats anymore. It's like our knee-jerk reaction to kill spiders when we see them. On the scale of one to ten, spiders are probably only a two in terms of danger. They are tiny, and quite easy for us to avoid. And yet we don't seem to think that we should have to avoid them, so we just kill them. Where is our belief in the sanctity of life? It all kind of goes out the window when we feel threatened doesn't it? I suppose that's why we do senseless things like put nets near beaches to kill things in the hope that will mean we don't get bitten by sharks (shark nets do not close off beaches as popularly believed, and in fact provide no protection at all. But they do kill hundreds of sharks, whales, turtles and fish each year).

Our fear has also reduced the success of various wolf reintroduction projects around the world. Farmers get scared and shoot the wolves to defend their stock. We can't live with losing a little livelihood for the survival an endangered species? We don't seem to manage the things we fear, or our own fear, we simply annihilate the threat.

So if we could overcome our fear of other creatures, would the world become a better place? I think it would. This is an area where education can play a big role. Have you ever seen someone hold a snake for the first time? When one of the animal shows came around to your school or at the zoo perhaps? It can be a magic moment, a moment that turns fear into respect, and eventually respect into liking, or even love. Today's society desperately needs more contact with nature, and especially more contact with God's creatures. It is easy to fear the unknown, but if we have contact with these creatures maybe we can learn to care for them instead. After all, the Bible says that perfect love drives out all fear (1John 4:18). Maybe if we love and trust God, our creator, a bit more, we can learn to love his creatures; and the killing will stop. I am sure only love can save 'dangerous' species.

Action idea: invite an animal show to your church and help bring people closer to animals. Or organise a church trip to the zoo.

About Me

I am a 22 year old Christian Environmentalist who runs an ecumenical church greening awards program called the Five Leaf Eco-Awards. Through this program I work with churches to help them become more environmentally friendly and to overcome the barriers which have slowed the adoption of creation care practices in churches around Australia. Some days I hear fantastic stories about what churches are doing and it warms my heart, other days I feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall.
I have no formal training in theology, but I do have a great love for the Bible, and I believe that God's spirit is calling us to a fresh look at what His Word says and means in terms of the environment and how we, as humans, relate to it.
When I'm not working for Five Leaf I am a university student studing environmental science and marketing. Many people find this combination of science and commerce quite strange which amuses me. I think if I was doing physics or chemistry it would be perfectly normal... the zoology is a bit more different. It is interesting at times though, because I often see both sides of things and I know how the 'enemy' thinks.

The Five Leaf Eco-Awards

The Five Leaf Eco-Awards are an ecumenical awards program for Australian churches and religious bodies that provides recognition for their environmental achievements.

Currently the program has pilots running in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra and we are seeking more churches to participate.

The Five Leaf Eco-Awards encourage faith communities to be more efficient in helping the environment and to play a more effective role in social change towards sustainability. It provides examples of what is possible, and a framework of steps to work towards and to allow comparison with other communities to enable exchange of knowledge and experiences.

The program aims to:
- Make ecologically friendly churches the norm
- Provide support to evolving eco- churches
- Provide a system that is flexible enough to allow and encourage creative approaches and extensions of the basic program.
- Encourage fellowship by providing a common goal with reachable targets and recognisable achievement.

After the Basic Certificate, the program has five levels or 'leaves' of awards. The first four leaves can be achieved by completing the requirements of any of the first four categories: Sustainable Church buildings/property, Green Worship and
Mission, Ecological Congregation, and Ecological Outreach. The final level, Five Leaf, extends and challenges the church
community to become a 'Green Church' in the sense of being environmentally friendly over these categories, demonstrating positive influence in the wider community for sustainability, and showing constant improvement of environmental practices.

Our mission:

“To bring people closer to God by bringing them into a right and faithful relationship with creation as its appointed stewards.”

How does your theology affect your interpretation of how we should manage the issues raised by introduced species in Australia? If not, upon...

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Take the Green Bible Challenge

Join me in completing the Green Bible Challenge! Grab your study Bible and a second hand Bible from your local op-shop. Then follow me as I read through the Bible, highlighting (in both Bibles using green) any passages relevant to creation and its relationship to God and man.

When we finish you will have two Eco-Study Bibles. One for you, and one for your church. Stun your congregation with over a thousand verses about the earth - almost double the verses that relate to heaven or love.

The purpose of this blog is to help equip you as Christian Environmentalists so you can green your church, life and local community. Time is short for creation, so start today!